Explore Indochina sourced the Minsk and Honda Cub for the Top Gear Vietnam Special, while the Vespa and Chaly scooters were purchased in Ho Chi Minh City.
Jeremy Clarkson visited Vietnam before the shoot and noted a floating restaurant in Ha Long Bay, some 50 meters from shore. He came up with the idea of having a challenge at the show’s end involving the three presenters driving/floating out to the restaurant.
Constructing the Minsk Swan Boat
About a month before the shoot, we were asked to make the motorbikes float. As luck would have it, I lived next to a lake in Hanoi full of swan pedal-powered ‘romantic’ lover boats that kids take out.
These swan pedal boats have chains like motorbikes, so we purchased one and started testing it with the Minsk. Our first efforts were comical because the bike’s weight pushed the paddles too far into the water, causing a lot of splash with little forward movement. After trial and error on a lake in Hanoi and a pond in the countryside, we eventually worked out how to make it work.
Connecting a Honda Cub to a Propellor Shaft
Top Gear wanted all the boats to be different, so I began to think about how to convert a 50cc Honda Cub into something that could power a Thailand-style propellor shaft. The problem was that the sprocket that powered the scooter’s chain was 90 degrees off, so I removed the engine and turned it around to get the drive sprocket to face backwards.
The rest of the bike was basically the same except for the wheels. The back wheel became a base mount upon which the entire contraption could swivel while the front wheel was removed to make everything balance. We tested it on a pond in the countryside, and it worked remarkably well.
Building the Vespa Boat
Halfway through the shoot in Hoi An, I approached Jezza and Andy Wilman, the Top Gear producer, and showed them videos of the two boats we’d made. They became very animated, realising we had built something far more robust and seaworthy than they had in mind for the simple jaunt out to the floating restaurant.
They immediately arranged for another Vespa to be sent to Hanoi. They flew in a safety expert engineer from the UK, whom we nicknamed ‘Mr Wolf’, after the Harvey Keitel character from Pulp Fiction. He carried a briefcase with US$6K and was told to make it work, whatever the cost. I called a friend in Hanoi, Marcus Madeja, to work out how to make a Mississippi-style paddle boat for the Vespa. He only had four days but managed to design and construct the whole contraption together, with a single test drive in a dyke on the afternoon before we headed to Ha Long Bay.
Final Preparations
Once in Ha Long Bay, Andy and Jezza decided to go all in, so a helicopter and five speedboats were hired, safety divers were flown in, and all manner of adjustments were made to the three boats to ensure they would not sink. This primarily consisted of special foam sprayed into all the craft. All moving parts were cleverly disguised so the presenters would not be hurt. This all happened the night before the shoot, so we staggered into bed at 3.30 am.
Four hours later, we were told to put the front wheel back on the Honda Cub for aesthetics. This messed up the balance, and James would have his work cut out to lift the front wheel and turn the Honda Cub around on the swivel mount. We compromised by strapping on a rock found on the beach to the rear end of the Honda Cub. This would prove disastrous.
Ha Long Bay Magic
The big moment came, and the three presenters drove from the beach towards Ha Long Bay. A strong gust hit them at 45 degrees, and Jezza was pushed up onto a rock pier while James got tangled in some ropes. I jumped in to keep Jezza off the rocks, ruining my passport and phone. James got out of the ropes, but then the rock pushed the back of his boat into the waves just enough for water to get in under the foam. This further unsettled the boat’s balance, and while it was impossible to sink, it effectively became inoperable and had to be towed back to shore.
James was left alone while the swan Minsk and Vespa were towed three kilometres out into one of the most scenic areas of Ha Long Bay, far away from the usual areas where tour boats go. They drove around the bay for the rest of the day, going into caves, climbing up rocks and heading towards a floating fishing village a local friend had told them about. The Minsk overheated occasionally, so Rich doused it with seawater to cool it down. The Vespa shorted somewhere, so Clarkson suffered mild electrical shocks, much to everyone’s amusement. Meanwhile, James got two Explore Indochina mechanics to rebuild his Honda boat by removing the rock and using better flotation tubes taken from a spare swan boat. It then worked like a charm, and he caught up with the other presenters in no time.
The rest is TV history. Many enthusiasts consider the Top Gear Vietnam Special to be the best on record, or at least in the top three, along with the drive to the North Pole and the chase out of redneck America. It was extended by 15 minutes to include the classic day the three presenters drove out into Ha Long Bay. Man, did we party that night!
By Digby Greenhalgh
Digby Greenhalgh is the founder of Explore Indochina, and a recognized expert on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. All motorcycle tours are designed and guided by Digby.